Arms Talk Adjourn

U.s. Is Upbeat

July 17, 1985|The New York Times

Reagan administration officials said Tuesday that the Soviet Union had offered some ideas in Geneva on reducing strategic arms. But they said the concepts seemed vague and designed to perpetuate certain Soviet advantages in land-based missiles.

The disclosure of the Soviet proposal came as the second round of the strategic arms talks were adjourned. A third round of the talks, which started in March, will begin Sept. 19.

The White House marked the occasion with a statement saying the latest talks had ended just about ``where we had expected to be, given that we are ending only the second round of negotiations of such complexity and importance.``

The Soviet Union`s statement about the adjournment was more negative. In Moscow, the official press agency Tass said the second round had been as unsatisfactory as the first and had been marred by an American ``smokescreen of empty words and indefinite promises.``

The views were echoed in Geneva by the chief Soviet delegate to the talks, Viktor P. Karpov, who said he was still waiting for the Americans to offer something new. Max M. Kampelman is heading the American delegation.

The Americans said Tuesday that the Soviet negotiators declined to go into details on such questions as what weapons would be included in each category and what the ceilings should be. Nevertheless, officials said the idea showed that the Russians were at least dangling officially the possibility of moves on strategic weapons -- one of the three parts of the Geneva talks -- when they resume in the fall.

The other two parts deal with intermediate-range weapons and American research into space-based weapons development.